[19] Nursing Students’ Internet Self-Efficacy

Sharon Harvey Associate Professor
College of Human and Health Sciences

Abstract

Swansea university offers three pre-registration nursing programmes; BSc Nursing (full-time), BSc Nursing (part-time) and MSc Nursing. All three programmes use blended learning with varying degrees of success. Much of this blended learning is delivered via the internet. In the development of these programmes, there has been an assumption that student nurses are confident using the internet. The aim of this study is to explore pre-registration nursing students’ internet self-efficacy using a validated questionnaire designed by Eastin & LaRose (2000).

Learners who have higher internet self-efficacy are more likely to succeed in internet-based learning tasks (Tsai & Tsai, 2003). Liang & Wu (2010) and Liang, Wu & Tsai (2011) found that nurses with higher internet self-efficacy are generally more motivated to use internet-based learning. However, there is evidence that some registered nurses reject internet-based learning task due to the perceived lack of competence (Yu, Chen, Yang, Wang, Yen, 2006). Despite the need for nursing students to have sound internet skills there are very few studies on student nurse internet self-efficacy. Bond (2004; 2010) found that nursing students’ internet skills had improved in the six years between her studies; however this was limited to basic internet skills rather than more complex information literacy tasks.

The initial findings from the study suggest that nursing students do not feel confident with the internet suggesting that further support is required. Further analysis is required to understand the full impact of the findings of the research. The presentation will detail the final analysis of the results of the study.

Session Outline

This presentation will begin with a description and demonstration of how blended learning is incorporated into the pre-registration nursing programmes. The description of the study methodology will be presented using Prezi. Group interaction will be encouraged by using a discussion forum on the support student receive for internet use. The results of the study will be presented using Prezi before ending with a discussion about the impact this study will have on the development of the new pre-registration nursing programmes.

Key Words

Internet, self-efficacy, confidence, blended learning

Key Messages

Embed support for internet use within programmes when using a blended learning approach. Never assume that students regardless of their age, or gender, are confident with using the internet.